William Henry Dorsey was not only an artist but a collector. That’s not unusual. What is unusual is that he was both at a time when Black folks were struggling to survive the dehumanization of…
Category: Ephemera/Paper/Documents
Posters tell movie history of Mantan Moreland
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Movies, and Performers
I didn’t know Mantan Moreland made so many movies, my old auction buddy Janet exclaimed. Neither did I. We had individually gone through items in an upcoming online auction and were marveling at how many…
Authenticating a Black ancestor’s history by joining the DAR
Posted in African American women, Black history, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, slavery, and Women
An African American baker named Cyrus Bustill baked bread for George Washington’s troops during the Revolutionary War. That’s what the documents showed, but family historian Joyce Mosley wanted more verification. So she decided to join…
Tuskegee Airmen artifacts show up far from home
Posted in Black history, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, history, and Military
William S. Powell Jr. must have been mighty proud to be a Tuskegee Airman. He kept his brown leather flight jacket with the 99th Pursuit Squadron patch, his helmet, his graduation diploma, flight wings, training…
Cutouts of baseball fans carry on tradition of ‘dummy boards’
Posted in Antiques, collectibles, Culture, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and history
Have you ever heard of “silent companions?” I hadn’t heard of them until my friend Rebecca mentioned them in light of the move by the Philadelphia Phillies and other baseball teams to fill their stands…
Like the movement, John Lewis was beaten, bloodied but unbowed
Posted in Black history, civil rights movement, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and history
You cannot understand the greatness of John Lewis unless you know the struggles that he and other civil rights activists endured during the 1960s. He was in his 20s when he bravely marched and protested…
What artifacts will tell the story of 2020 protests?
Posted in Black history, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Photos
In March 1968, striking black sanitation workers marched along the streets of Memphis demanding higher wages and better working conditions. They carried signs emblazoned with “I AM A MAN” to express their anger at not…
Revisiting Ebony’s 1965 “White Problem in America” issue
Posted in Black history, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and history
Several years ago, I was lucky to find an issue of Ebony magazine from 1965 that was devoted solely to race in America. This was the middle of the civil rights movement, and John…
George Floyd’s death links to a murderous past of lynchings
Posted in Black history, Death, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and history
I bought the newspaper at auction two years ago, but I just couldn’t bring myself to write about its contents. The stories on the front page were too horrific, too graphic, too painful. Every headline…
Hair-care labels by African American designer Charles Dawson
Posted in Art, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Uncategorized
It took a minute for the revelation to sink in. There in front of me were images of some of the hair-care product labels I had picked up years ago at a collectibles’ show. They…